Plants as a building service
Plants are proven to remove pollutants and improve air quality, but which species should be considered? Researchers from…
May 2019
Evaluating dynamic lighting
Dynamic ‘circadian’ lighting varies in colour and intensity during the day, but does it improve alertness and help…
Case study: Lark Rise, the UK’s first Passivhaus Plus
A Passivhaus Plus home in the Chiltern Hills establishes the ‘building as a power station’ concept and shows…
Heightened awareness: Avoiding cold draughts in offices with exposed ceilings
The trend for exposed ceilings in offices can have serious consequences for occupant comfort if designers don’t take…
How audio visualisation can drive the natural ventilation of buildings
Acoustics and ventilation should be designed in tandem to ensure optimal performance in naturally ventilated buildings, says Mach’s…
Take me higher: A’DAM Tower lift strategy
The lift configuration in the newly refurbished A’DAM tower in Amsterdam has been radically redesigned to accommodate a…
In the hot seat: Interview with Dave Pearson
Large heat pump installations could change the way heat is generated in the UK and help decarbonise existing…
Intranets for heat: Introducing BEN networks
The balanced energy network at London South Bank University has been part-funded by Innovate UK to help accelerate the…
Unlocking the Grid
If electric vehicles and batteries are to herald an all-electric future for homes, smart tech must be developed…
The meaning of life: Comparing whole life carbon for gas and electric heating
As electricity generation reduces its carbon intensity, embodied carbon represents a higher proportion of whole-life carbon. Clara Bagenal…
Tackling NOx from CHPs
Policies encouraging gas-fired CHPs in London are going into reverse. David Blackman looks at how new air pollution…
On the right track: services retrofit saves TfL’s Palestra £400,000
Like most large offices, TfL’s Palestra building is complex. To realise its true potential, it underwent significant interventions…
Industry wakes up to reality at Futurebuild
At the conference formerly known as Ecobuild, there was a large focus on housing and monitoring performance, as…
How using turmeric waste as biomass cut carbon emissions by 60%
In 2018, GSH Group India won a major environmental award for a project with FMCG firm Kaleesuwari to…
Researching new methods for estimating design water flowrate
It is recognised that using the traditional loading units method overestimates the design flow for hot and cold…